secret mission London

London map by StudioKMO

Anthropologie on Kings Road

Orla's store in Covent garden

The Boxpark in Shoreditch

Tea at Peyton and Byrne?

Tomorrow I'll leave on a businesstrip to London. I will have a meeting with people from a large UK department store for a lovely project. If the outcome is positive you'll be the first to know what it is!

Next to that this trip will be special because my friend and German distributor Sabine Wittig (from online shop La Mesa and Blog Azurweiss) and me are going to meet each other at Heathrow airport and we will spend most of the days in London together. We haven't seen each other for 8 years. And of course my English distributors, Saskia & Sofie will be there too...I am really looking forward to it!

I hope to find time for visiting Uniqlo (to buy some Orla Kiely stoles for only a few pounds), to show Sabine the Anthropologie store on Kings Road and the Orla store in Covent Garden.
And I would love to go back to the Shoreditch area, there seems so much to be going on. There's this new Boxpark, worlds first pop-up mall, housed in simple sea containers and there seem to be several new shops since I was there 1,5 years ago.

If we find time: of course we'll visit the V & A-museum and Tate Modern...

My special wish for this time: a real British Afternoon Tea, I must admit I never had a Tea in London before! Would you happen to know a good (meaning new/hip/organic or completely traditional - fine with me!) London Tearoom? Thanks for any good ideas!

missed

How could I have missed Wies Preijde on the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven last week? Guess I was sleeping somehow!
With colourfull yarns strung up to the walls this textile and fashion artist creates a somewhat unreal but certainly warm world. It must feel strange to walk through it, I guess, like entering a textile comic strip. What an inspriration!

dutch design week 2012

I am sure we have only seen the tip of a beautiful iceberg during the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven a few days ago...
Here you can find a few of the things that caught my eye alongside our path:

Steven Banken

studio Elke van den Berg

Mandalight Made by Chou

recycled bottle-tealight holders by Riikka Jefremof from Finland (email) 

colour porcelain by Scholten en Baijings

And this is my 'wall of work': 1000 Circles on a high wall in the ART Hotel

dutch design freak

Next Thursday I'll be sticking a couple of hundred Circles to a huge wall in the Art Hotel in Eindhoven. I am going to attend an exhibition called Dutch Design Freak which is part of the Dutch Design Week.

The Dutch Design Week is my favorite time of the year (ok, apart from Christmas): in this week the industrial monuments in Eindhoven (Philips city) open their doors. Young, but also established, designers (mostly from the Design Academy) show their new designs and ideas.

If you are hungry for inspiration: plan a trip to Eindhoven!

dienke's baskets

 

Dienke Dekker was scouted as promising talent by Lidewij Edelkoort on Trendtablet this week. 
Dienke is a 4th year student at the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands who has a love for craftmanship. She 'reinvented' basket weaving by silkscreening bamboostructures on textiles. I love the shapes and the beautiful details. Can't wait to see (feel!) her objects live one day...

tidy up art

 

There's a trend going on: designers try to get hold of life by mapping social behaviour, everyday life or even emotions in graphic statistics.
Swiss artist Ursus Wehrly is doing the same with daily materials and scenes. I am intrigued by this concept: simplifiying the world, making it well-ordered like a Swiss watch. Must be my Matterhorn roots!

pinterest pill

Recovering from a nasty flu I gave myself a Pinterest-treatment today. Hadn't been on Pinterest since July and I must say: it works seeing beautiful photo's, I feel much better today!
Since I stayed in bed practically the whole week, I was very much focussed on photo's of bedrooms ;-)

You can find these pics (and track down the source) on my Pinterest boards. Have a lovely Sunday!